The 2020 Financial State of the States report surveys the fiscal health of the 50 states prior to the coronavirus pandemic. This data is released today by Truth in Accounting (TIA), a think tank that analyzes government financial reporting.
Burrow deep into the most obscure of Washington's local governments and you'll find boutique districts that control spending for cemeteries, drainage infrastructure, mosquito management and fire protection.
How large could the shortfall in state government general revenues be, amidst the coronavirus and related crises?
Seattle would need $5,400 per taxpayer to dig itself out of a ‘financial trench’ and pay all of its bills.
With everything else that is going on in Washington, a sneaky change to guidance for federal employees who discover lawbreaking in the spending of appropriated funds might seem like small potatoes. But we believe proper implementation of the Antideficiency Act oversight provisions are important because they provide.
In case readers think this is all hyperbole or we’re being negative about Don the real estate guy, look for yourselves.
Justin Marlowe, a professor in the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, has been named a member of Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s Council of Economic Advisors.
The federal government is reining in the power of Bechtel National Industries to spend taxpayer dollars at the Hanford site in Eastern Washington by requiring many subcontracts to first get reviewed by Energy Department officials.
Sally Coomer of Seattle, who cares for her disabled adult daughter at home, doesn’t like the fact that union dues are deducted from the Medicaid payment she gets for her services under a Washington state policy.
Just over two weeks since the Janus ruling, about a third of the affected states have taken actions meant to soften its impact on unions' membership and revenue.
Called stress test reporting, this new practice can show policymakers how adverse economic scenarios could affect retirement system investments and state budgets.
When it comes to addressing the nation’s water infrastructure crisis, cities and towns are ground zero.
Stress tests help policymakers plan for the next recession
See the financial condition of Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, North Dakota, Utah, Washington and West Virginia.
In the summer of 2015, officials overseeing the city of Seattle’s retirement fund realized that one of their investments was in trouble.
A class-action lawsuit was filed this week on behalf of Hanford workers who lost pension benefits under a failed economic development program.
Washington State Treasurer Duane Davidson called on the Legislature to use some of the unprecedented increase in state revenue to pay down state obligations rather than spending all of it on expanding existing programs.
One way for governments and enterprises to save money is to contract out some or all of their services. Towns, cities, counties, states — even the federal government — engage in such practices all the time.
Truth in Accounting (TIA), a Chicago-based nonpartisan, non-profit group founded in 2002 that advocates for financial transparency in state an local government, annually issues a Financial State of the States report.
The city of Seattle is in a battle with residents over a controversial new income tax, and the spat says something significant about America’s public sector pension crisis.